We spoke to Gaurav, who has been with Prime Global for 8 years now, to find out more about his career journey and what makes him tick.

Q. How have you progressed in your career to get to where you are now?

After I finished university, I worked in a research lab for Oxford University for 5 years. I really loved the scientific side of research but knew I couldn’t do that for the rest of my life!

I then went into medical communications. In the past 16 years, I’ve only been in two companies; however, it feels like it’s been 5–7 different companies because the industry has progressed so much. Looking back, I’ve become who I am today due to learning as well as developing a lot through change, growth and great leaders.

Q. What have been your highlights across the past 7 years of working at Prime Global?

There are a few! The first would be starting the London division with Graeme and the team. I was amongst the first who initiated the London team, which was great. And then, of course, seeing the London team grow from a team of 4–5 people initially to over 100 in five years!

Second would be working through the new Prime Global branding in 2016, as that really was another transformational point for the company. Finally, becoming head of the Scion team and watching it grow from four people to 50-60 people across multiple locations. We initially started the team with one ad board with one client and now it’s a multimillion-dollar agency with many different clients, something I am so proud of leading!

Q. What experiences have you had in the Scion agency and any other teams/agencies you have been involved in at Prime Global?

I initially started looking after Core and Scion. Core is quite different in terms of deliverables, as at the time we were focused around consumer health. I’m now concentrating on the Scion team, which has grown rapidly!

When I look back at the mantra we created for Scion during the re-branding, it revolves around “Starting with the ‘why?’ and deliver with excellence”. I have been focused on making sure every member of Scion understands this mantra because it’s something that I’ve seen Scion really take on board; from the type of people we hire to working with our clients every day.

Q. Now you help drive one of the agencies forward, what are your biggest tips for any new starters interested in joining?

It’s key to challenge the norm! I think it’s so important for someone starting any career to really get to grips with the ‘what?’ and ‘why?’ of their role.

The other tip is to build strong internal and external relationships. The relationships we build really do drive work forward, in terms of hiring the right people and also getting the right projects from good client relationships.

Q. What piece of scientific equipment do you think will revolutionise the health industry?

Tough question! In relation to Prime Global, we are focused on medical communications but there is a gap at the moment in strategic planning and medical affairs work. So, if there was an artificial intelligence tool that could help build a strategy and be implemented across a scientific communication platform, that would be revolutionary. We know that direct-to-patient communications is becoming more important for specific disease areas and that’s an area of interest for us.

Q. If you were to have a dinner party, who would be your top three invitees and why?

I am a huge techno fan and listen to Rosanna Nun when doing hardcore strategic planning – she would be my first choice.

Then I would bring my wife to make sure I don’t party all night!

Finally, I’d invite Wun. She’s my close friend who works in the NHS in an A&E at the moment during the COVID-19 crisis. I appreciate all the work she and the health industry are doing; she deserves a break and to let her hair down for at least one night.